Regional Partnerships in school education - European Commission ...

10 Regional partnerships in school education
Basic skills
Project title
Effective classroom learning through
an awareness of “Basic Competences”
Partners
Partner Region 1:
Dorset, UK
Coordinator organisation:
Bournemouth Council
Partner organisations:
Shadows Professional Development
Avonbourne School
Glenmoor School
Bishop of Winchester Academy
Portchester School
St Michael’s Primary
Stourfield Primary
Moordown St John’s Primary
Malmesbury Park Primary
Pokesdown Primary
Partner Region 2:
Andalucía, Spain
Coordinator organisation:
Delegación de Huelva
Partner organisations:
CEP BolluIIos - Valverde
CEP Huelva - Isla Cristina
CEP Aracena
Shadows Andalucía
IES San Blas (Aracena)
IES Delgado Hernández (Bolludos)
IES Rafael Reyes (Cartaya)
CEIP Dunas de Doñana (Matalascañas)
CEIP El Lince (Almoñte)
CEIP Manuel Pérez (Bollullos)
CEIP Manuel Siurot (Huelva)
CEIP Juan Ramón Jiménez (Cartaya)
IES La Palma (La Palma del Cdo)
Project period
2010-2012
Dorset, UK
Andalucía, Spain
2006 the EU recommended that all students should
Inacquire ‘key competences’ for lifelong learning. These
competences are a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes
necessary for personal development, social inclusion, active citizenship
and employment.
Acquiring skills for life
Bournemouth Council, UK, and Huelva Education Board, Spain, wanted to design teaching materials
to help achieve this. The two local authorities brought together teacher trainers and 16 primary and
secondary schools to develop 32 topic-based ‘teaching modules’ to access science through English,
for students who are not native English speakers. Their priority was to devise a model that could be
used as a teacher training tool for authentic material development.
“We produced the 32 topic-based modules for teaching science at primary (5-11 yrs) and secondary
(11-18 yrs) levels. They have been available to schools on a USB key,” explains David Vann from the
UK team. “We have reached 4 000 students in secondary schools in Bournemouth, and junior schools
are now using the teaching units too. They have also been used in English as a Foreign Language
migrant education.” He adds that the modules’ effectiveness in teaching slow learners has been an
unexpected bonus.
The Spanish partners have set up a website to disseminate the new teaching material and estimate
that they can reach at least 60 000 teachers through Shadows Network across Europe. At a regional
level, the project has already had a measurable impact. “In Andalusia, the 32 modules are now in
use in schools all over the province,” Maria-Angeles Hernandez, responsible for bilingual teaching for
the Huelva Education Authority, says. “They have been disseminated to all bilingual schools in the
Huelva region, as well as into training centres.” Maria stresses the importance of the teams shadowing
each other. “We learned from the UK to let students participate more – and our UK partners
learned that we tend to leave nothing unprepared before starting a lesson. Combining these methods
has resulted in a fantastic final product.”
David is clear about the benefits of participating in a pan-European project. “It is cross-cultural and
cross-sectorial. The value of learning that others live and think in a different way is really important,”
he says. And the impact is still being felt, with more ideas being put into practice.
Project website
http://educacionadistancia.juntadeandalucia.es/
profesorado/pluginfile.php/16795/mod_
resource/content/10/comenius_regio/index.htm